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Government to
tackle energy shortfalls - Mahama
Accra, April 22, Ghanadot/GNA –
Ghana’s struggle to attain energy sufficiency has been given
a big boost following the completion of the first phase of
an estimated 600 million-dollar plant being implemented by a
joint Ghana-Sino consortium, the Sunon Asogli Power project.
The completion of the 200 megawatts project, which is
expected to be operational next month, would help in
ensuring energy security, with prospects of exporting the
vital commodity to other energy starved nations in the West
African sub-region.
Management of the project met with Vice President John
Mahama at the Castle, Osu, on Wednesday, to discuss issues
that have saddled the commencement of the second phase of
the project which is located at Kpone, near Tema.
The Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede XVI, led
the delegation that also included the Shenzhen Energy Group
of China and the China African Development Fund, the other
partners in the project.
Briefing the Vice President, Togbe Afede said completing the
560 megawatts project could change the spectre of energy
shortfalls that had bedevilled the country.
Such support, he said, could free more budgetary resources
for government to address rural development difficulties.
Topical issues affecting the consortium, Togbe Afede said,
included failure in getting sufficient gas supplies from
Nigeria and the slow pace in completing a metering project
that would help connect independent power producers to the
national grid.
He said the failure to deal with the two problems could
disrupt plans
to complete the second phase of the project which would
bring on-stream an additional 360 megawatts before the end
of next year.
Responding, the Vice President commended Togbe Afede for his
foresight in bringing about the
project and the Chinese businessmen for their interest in
the Ghanaian economy.
He assured the delegation that the issues raised would be
tackled at the highest level with the Nigerian government to
ensure that sufficient gas was provided to the company under
the West African Gas Pipeline Project so as to attract other
entrepreneurs to the energy sector.
This, he said, fitted in government’s policy to increase the
national energy capacity to about 5,000 megawatts in the
next four years.
He entreated the Chinese partners to go ahead with the
second phase of the project as government worked around the
clock to remove obstacles.
Mr Huang Fu Han of the Shenzhen Energy Group, also pleaded
with the government to help ameliorate the difficulties that
had been encountered.
Ghana has been saddled with insufficient energy requirement
in recent times due to production shortfalls in meeting
demands and unreliability of rain fall that had affected the
efficiency of the nation’s main power supply, the Akosombo
hydro plant.
A new state policy that allows independent power producers a
foothold in the energy production was to help scale up the
process of industrialization and create more jobs.
GNA
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